The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has said that it is moving into the second phase of support for Local Pharmaceutical Committees (LPCs) as chief transformation officer Robbie Turner announces he is leaving pharmacy. He will become the director of diversity and inclusion at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

In August, Mr Turner was appointed chief transformation officer at the PSNC to oversee an overhaul of pharmacy representation in England.

He left his role as the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s (RPS) director of pharmacy and membership experience in March this year to lead PSNC’s Transforming Pharmacy Representation (TAPR) workstream, implemented following the Review Steering Group (RSG)’s recommendations in April to ensure that contractors get best value for money from the levies that they pay.

The RSG’s proposals included stronger governance, including independence, audits and greater transparency across PSNC and LPCs; better alignment with the NHS; appropriate resourcing; and stronger collaboration.

This week on LinkedIn, Mr Turner announced that he was leaving pharmacy.

‘This week, after nearly thirty years working in and for the pharmacy profession it’s time for me to hang up my counting triangle, my knowledge of the 28 times table, and my ability to listen into 3 conversations at one whilst being on the phone,’ he said, thanking the ‘amazing teams’ that he had worked with and singling out his work on inclusion and diversity as particularly significant.

‘Thank you to all the people who have helped me learn, supported me when I’ve got stuff wrong, and helped me re-learn. Thank you to those people who used their emotional energy, who trusted me, to share their experiences. Their personal experiences of a profession which had perpetrated a system of unfairness and inequality. They helped to open my eyes so I could start to use my privilege to call this out and take action,’ he said.

‘We showed that by bringing people together with a focus on services which were truly inclusive we could improve the care we provided to communities across Great Britain and drive down inequality,’ he added.

It was announced today that he would become the director of diversity and inclusion at RIBA. 

James Wood, PSNC’s Director of Contractor and LPC Support said that PSNC was ‘disappointed that he is leaving’, but ‘we wish Robbie well in his new role and thank him for his support and input’

He said that Mr Turner’s departure came ‘following the successful delivery of phase one of our TAPR LPC Toolkit’.

‘Robbie’s short-term interim role has helped us set up a complex programme of work putting in place processes which will enable successful implementation of TAPR and support for LPCs,’ he added.

Mr Wood said that PSNC was now moving into a ‘second phase of support for LPCs’ and wanted to ‘tap into the vast expertise that exists in the network’ to enable closer work with LPCs.

‘As such we have already communicated to LPCs an opportunity for up to two LPC chief officers, or other LPC staff where appropriate, to join PSNC on a fixed-term secondment opportunity as LPC Transformation Champions,’ he said.

A spokesperson for PSNC said that further updates would be posted on its website shortly.